Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

I want to thank everyone for joining us for this unusual sounding service, Maundy Thursday.

I had never heard the name before until I was in college and I thought that someone said Monday-Thursday.

The word “maundy” comes from the Latin word for commandment, and this is a service in which we reflect on Christ’s love for us and the example He left for us to follow on the night on which He was betrayed.

Tonight we have enjoyed a meal and we are going to now feast on God’s Word together before we partake of the Lord’s Supper together.

Maundy Thursday services sometimes also feature a unique practice that is not done too often anymore called footwashing.

Now, let me settle your nerves and tell you that we will not be washing your feet tonight, and there is a reason for that, but I do want you to see by the time we leave tonight the importance of washing one another’s feet in the Spirit of Christ.

To better understand that this practice is about more than just feet, let’s turn to tonight and get a better understanding.

Read Text.

Pray.

Last night it felt strange not being here at the church.

I worked in the garden with my family planting and harrowing up our garden to get things ready to grow before this rain comes in this weekend.

When I got done, I almost didn’t want to come inside the house because my feet were so dirty.

I immediately wanted to wash them.

In ancient Palestine, they often had dirty feet from their travels and would need to wash them when they came inside to eat and rest.

The dirt that was on their feet was just as filthy as our dirt and their feet were just as nasty.

Just like many of you may have cringed when I told you that footwashing was a regular part of many Maundy Thursday services and you probably were secretly praying that we would not touch your feet, the Jewish people did not exactly like feet either.

In fact, even a Hebrew servant would not be required by the law to wash the feet of a person.

This was the job for the lowest person in the house, the slave.

In just a moment, we are going to see why this matters, but for now keep that in mind.

Tonight we are going to see three things:

Jesus’ actions were motivated by love

Jesus actions were informed by His Perfect Knowledge

Jesus’ actions are an example for us to follow

Let’s look at each of these together.

1. Jesus’ Actions Were Motivated by Love (vv.1-2)

The Bible tells us in verse 1 that Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father.

In other words, Jesus knew why He came and that the hour of His crucifixion was at hand.

He knew that He would soon be leaving the Disciples and His Church on this earth and returning to the Father.

With this great and heavy knowledge upon Him, Jesus loved his own to the end.

What we are about to see Jesus do was motivated by His love for His Disciples.

I don’t think we have the time tonight to be able to go through the many passages in John where we see Jesus take this tender attitude towards those who followed Him, but if you read the Gospel of John, you will see a clear teaching that those who belong to Christ are kept and held there by Jesus’ love and that He cares for His sheep.

In fact, He lays down His life for the sheep; He leaves the 99 and goes after the lost sheep; and there is rejoicing in heaven over one lost soul that returns to the Father.

Jesus said later in the Gospel, “No greater love has a man than that he lay down his life for his friend ().”

The Bible says that Jesus loved His own, but particularly that He loved them to the end.

What does this mean?

Does it mean that He only loved them to the end?

Does it mean He only loved them up until the cross?

Obviously we know better than that!

It means that Jesus loved them with a complete love.

His love was perfect towards them.

And His love is also perfect towards you!

But before we look at what Jesus did, we also need to see that:

2. Jesus’ Actions Were Informed By His Perfect Knowledge (vv.

2-4a, 10b-11)

If you knew that someone would hate you, would you love them anyway?

That’s a tough question.

We want to say yes, but in our humanity, I’m afraid we most likely all would say no!

We want to be accepted and we have a hard time dealing with rejection.

Perhaps I should put it another way.

If someone murdered your wife and children; if a drunk driver ran into your parents and killed them; if someone stole your identity and everything you had spent your life saving for retirement, would you be able to bow down at their feet and wash them?

Would you serve them in the most menial way you could and love them despite the evil in their heart?

Jesus knew what was about to happen to Him.

He knew that Satan had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him.

In fact, Jesus knew this from the day He chose Judas.

He spent years pouring into a man that had a hard, unregenerate heart; a man that would stab Him in the back with betrayal for the price of a slave.

Judas welcomed Satan into his heart.

His plan and Satan’s were one.

He was not a victim.

And yet Jesus washed his feet.

The Bible says that Jesus got up from the table, took off His outer garment, and took a towel to wash the grime off the feet of the disciples.

This is a task that is usually done at the beginning of the meal by the servants, but Jesus was no aristocrat.

He had no servants to wait upon Him.

And His disciples had been too busy arguing over who was the greatest among them.

I’m sure that as Jesus arose to perform this task it struck the disciples that not one of them had offered to perform it.

And Peter spoke for all of the disciples when He said that Jesus should not be the one to wash His feet.

But there was a deeper meaning to the foot washing that we will get to yet.

For now, we see that knowing that Judas would betray Him, Jesus humbled Himself and washed His feet.

Judas is not alone in His treachery, for Jesus also knew that the disciples would desert Him.

He knew that if you strike the Shepherd, the sheep will scatter.

He told Peter later that he would deny Him three times before morning.

He told the disciples that Satan had asked to sift them like wheat, but He had prayed for them.

It is in this context that we see the perfect love of Jesus and the perfect knowledge of Jesus combine to lead Him to perform the perfect act of love and humility.

John is the master of symbolism and dual meanings.

He mentions that Jesus laid aside His outer garment and picked it up again, which He did!

But this is also symbolic of the fact that Jesus would lay down His life and take it up again.

This act of footwashing is more than just washing the feat.

It is symbolic of the washing of the heart that Jesus would do as He bled upon the cross for the sins of the world.

So let us now look at the last thing to consider tonight.

3. Jesus’ Actions Were an Example to Follow (vv.5-20)

There are four aspects of this act of humility that we need to follow.

Jesus made it clear after washing the disciples’ feet that they were to do as they had seen their Master and Lord do.

So for this reason, many smaller, Independent Baptist Churches and Mennonite congregations will often practice this act of footwashing as if it were an ordinance of the church.

However, the act itself is not so important as what it represents.

A. Follow His Humility

First, we are to follow the humility of Christ.

We must humble ourselves to get up from the table and be willing to serve one another.

Even more so, we must humble ourselves in order to come to Christ.

We have to recognize our unclean hearts and the need to be washed.

Peter asked Jesus why He did what He did and said Jesus must not wash His feet.

Jesus’ response was that if Peter did not let Christ wash Him, he could not have any part with Jesus in the Kingdom.

Peter misunderstood what Jesus meant and offered to let Christ give him a bath.

We laugh, but really that is exactly what we need.

We must come to the fountain in His blood and be plunged beneath the cleansing flood to loose all our guilty stains.

Jesus humbled Himself as Paul says in Philippians,

It is our responsibility to confess the name of Jesus as our Lord and Master and be cleansed by Him now in this life and not to wait until we are conquered to do it in the life to come.

We will have no part with Jesus if we wait.

But there is a second thing we must follow that is related to the first.

B. Follow Him to the Cross

We must follow Jesus all the way to the cross.